bility that all the known geological indications of former ruin in the strata of our earth are to be referred to the diluvial catastrophe, and that alone; but I can fully satisfy my mind that the same spirit will, when in union with that of heat, finally effect that great destruction by fire spoken of by the Apostle Peter. The displacement consequent on the alteration in the relative position and consistence of the constituent atoms of one drop of water through the agency of the spirits of heat and of electricity, and the powerful nature of the force that resists any attempt to confine the particles of the smallest quantity of any material matter, when about to undergo a change from a denser to a rarer state, will help to convey to the mind but a faint idea of what is the power of such a force when it comes to be applied, whether for their preservation or destruction, to the immeasurable masses that compose the material part of the universe, and part of the bases of unknown worlds.

The knowledge we have attained to in exploring the wonders of the celestial universe, amidst the most undoubted proofs of design and omnipotence, all points to the fact equally sure and indubitable, made known to us likewise through the page of inspiration, and uttered by Him who made and who will destroy. There we read that the heavens or atmosphere, and the earth on which we live, shall pass away. "The idea of the ultimate dissolution of the solar system has usually been felt as painful, and forcibly resisted by philosophers. When Newton saw no end to the deranging effect of the commor planetary perturbations, he called

for the special interference of the Almighty to avert the catastrophe; and great was the rejoicing when the recent analyst descried a memorable power of conservation in our system's constituent phenomena; but, after all, why should it be painful? Absolute permanence is visible nowhere around us; and the fact of change merely intimates that, in the exhaustless womb of the future, unenveloped wonders are in store. The phenomenon referred to would simply point to the close of one mighty cycle in the history of the solar orb; the passing away of arrangements which have fulfilled their objects that they might be transformed into new. Thus is the periodic death of a plant perhaps the essential to its prolonged life; and when the individual dies and disappears, fresh and vigorous forms spring from the elements which composed it. Mark the chrysalis ! It is the grave of the worm, but the cradle of the sunborn insect. The broken bowl shall yet be healed and beautified by the potter, and a voice of joyful note shall awaken one day even the silence of the urn."*

We are thus permitted to reach another test in confirmation of that faith by which we believe that "the worlds were made by the word of God;" and by the same power also we are assured, "the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat," when "the earth also and the things that are therein shall be burned up." And in

* Views of the Architecture of the Heavens, by J. P. Nichol, LL.D., p. 197.

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the accomplishment of this prophecy how readily is the mind led to believe, that the spirits now employed and wielded by the great Artificer of the created universe sball one day, when He may be pleased to withdraw His control from them, be made the engines of this fierce destruction, and in extension of the same power by which we have seen both the synthesis and the analysis of created matter has been effected, the great connecting forces will be severed, and the primary elements of both entities shall return to God, who made them.

CHAPTER V.

THE SPIRIT OF LIFE, AND THE PHENOMENA DEPENDING UPON ITS UNION WITH THE SPIRITS OF HEAT AND ELECTRICITY, IN LIVING BODIES.

IN elucidation of the truths I have been considering in relation to the supposed existence of the two spirits of heat and electricity, the subordinate twin-agency of the inorganic world,-I have been guided more by a desire to point out those circumstances and phenomena which I thought best calculated to prove their existence, than to give any lengthened or connected view of the laws which govern inorganic matter generally. For this would have obliged me to go far more extensively into the theory of inductive science than would either have been possible in a work like this, or even than would have been useful.

I have said enough to bring conviction to the mind, that the spirits of heat and electricity are playing an important part in the natural phenomena of the inorganic matter that surrounds us, and I shall in a future chapter endeavour to show the distinguishing characteristics of these and still higher spirits, so as to lead to the conviction that they are in their creation distinct kinds of the same class of entity.

Before, however, this can be done, some notice must

be taken of these higher spirits, and the influence they exert over the spirits that are subservient to them. That they do exercise a superior and controlling power over those that are below them, and that they are endued with more superior and remarkable qualities to accomplish this, cannot be doubted or overlooked.

The created substances we are now about to consider are usually called organic, in contradistinction to those that are inorganic. Their organization, their construction, and their phenomena, are so strikingly remarkable, so delicate, so elaborately contrived and so rapidly destroyed, that the mind is naturally struck with the contrast they afford when placed side by side or in comparison with the structure and phenomena of inorganic bodies.

It will be seen that the spirit of life in its simplest manifestation in the structures and functions of plants, is a spirit that has the power of putting together the primary elements, and particularly the gaseous elements of materiality, in such a manner and in such unions as are no where to be traced in bodies that are without this spirit. And the manner in which it treats with the subordinate spirits of heat and electricity, causing them to bring down their powerful but necessary agency in such a manner as to be made instrumental in carrying out some of the most delicate and elaborate changes which animal chemistry can effect, is truly wonderful. The subordinate spirits in organic bodies have the power to produce chemical changes in those bodies which, without the controlling operation of the spirit